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The Liberal National Government must stand up to greedy corporate irrigators and the cotton industry by stopping them from taking more than their fair share, and support a Royal Commission, the Greens say.

Reports that the South Australian Government may prevent the SA Murray Darling Basin Royal Commission’s final report from being made public show a contempt for the Australian people, and the need for an urgent federal Royal Commission into the Murray Darling Basin, the Greens say.

Greens Senator for NSW, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, will visit Broken Hill and Menindee tomorrow (17 January) to meet with locals and see first hand the devastation occuring in the Murray Darling system as a result of mismanagement and climate change. Senator Faruqi is a civil and environmental engineer who has worked on water management for the last two decades.

Senator Faruqi will also meet the Broken Hill Greens Convenor, Eve-Lyn Kennedy. Senator Faruqi will be available for media on Thursday and on Friday morning.

The Federal Water Minister must force the NSW and QLD Governments to urgently invoke their powers and embargo the cotton industry’s water extraction from the Murray Darling Basin after widespread fish deaths, the Greens say.

The Greens have responded to the release of a secret Ernst & Young Audit report that has shown state governments, including South Australia have been mismanaging taxpayer funded environmental water throughout the Murray-Darling Basin, creating “unique fraud risks”.

“This audit shows the environment and taxpayers continue to be ripped off by both State and Federal Governments, including here in South Australia,” Greens spokesperson for Environment & Water Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Australian Greens are calling on the South Australian Water Minister to come home from Friday’s Ministerial Council meeting with a commitment of the delivery of the 450GL promised to South Australia.

Thanks to global warming, Australia’s water resources and the Murray Darling Basin are more important now than ever before. These shared, nationally significant assets must be protected for future generations.